Man with Rs 5.5 lakh in cash falls to death in Kerala bank

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KANNUR: A 48-year-old man died after falling from the building that houses State Bank of Travancore (SBT), in Thalassery, on Friday, where he had gone to deposit money in his bank account.

According to the police, the incident happened at about 10.45 am, when the victim K K Unni, a resident of Peralassery and a Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) employee, working as an overseer in the Pinarayi substation came to the bank situated on the second floor of the building to exchange the money. The bank was shifted to the building five months ago.

Police said that the deceased had about Rs 5.5 lakhs which he had taken as a loan for purchasing a property. As he could not use the money any more, he had come to exchange it. He had deposited about Rs 4 lakh on Thursday as well and had come early in the morning to deposit the remaining amount in his bank account.

However, the long wait in the queue at the bank drained him and he went to the third floor of the bank which has a toilet and wash room under construction and he reportedly slipped down from the building in the absence of barricades.

The investigation officer said that the amount of Rs 4 lakh was taken by him from his provident fund (PF) few years back, but he took a loan of Rs5.5 lakh from KSEB Employees Cooperative Society recently. However it has to be verified whether he had taken any loan from the society and PF, he added.

When Express contacted at the Pinarayi substation, his colleague, Sapnanand, who is also an overseer, said that Unni had been on leave since Monday and had discussed about purchasing a land from his relatives.

"Though I suggested him to take the loan from PF, Unni said that he already applied the loan from society and has submitted the form last month. However he never said anything about taking the money from PF. Even if he had applied for it, this would have taken him sometime to get," he added.

Unni had joined the substation four years ago after he was transferred from section office.